My father-in-law bought a dolls house for my daughter earlier this year, which came with a little family of peg-dolls. She absolutely loves it, so I thought I’d try my hand at making an extra little member of the family.

I haven’t really tried making anything with wood since my rather disastrous failure trying to make a spoon with a face, but I thought that a little bit of whittling wouldn’t be too taxing and would probably be a nice calming activity.

I just chose a bit of kindling that was otherwise destined for the fire. It was fairly hard wood compared to the stuff that people seem to use in the Youtube videos! Nonetheless, I persevered, and finally it started looking like a little Grandad for the doll’s house family.

The arms and legs are pipe cleaners, the hands and feet are little blobs of insulation foam, the clothes are just old bits of reclaimed fabric and the hair is wool.

Then I started to worry that sometimes I feel like I need to create a stronger ‘wyrd’ brand for the Cabinet of Monsters. so Grandad sort of morphed into Pirate Captain Redbeard (with a dandyish sense of dress). I think I will include him as a stocking filler for my daughter when Christmas rolls around, although she’ll probably pull him apart pretty quickly.